As is known in the art, automobile designs are governed by a variety of ergonomic and operational factors. For doors and other such components, the design is generally based on ergonomic factors such as exterior appearance, and the location and visibility of hinges, latches and adjacent components, and operational factors such as the ingress/egress opening provided, the maximum clearance required for opening/closing a door, and crash performance.
For pick-up trucks, sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and other such vehicles which are designed to accommodate ingress/egress of several passengers and also provide means for transport of large goods, the ingress/egress opening and maximum clearance required for opening/closing a door can be of particular importance. For example, a pick-up truck having front and back driver/passenger doors may include a C-pillar mounted rear door which pivots relative to the C-pillar in a similar manner as the A-pillar mounted front door to thus provide a relatively large and unobstructed ingress/egress opening without the intermediate B-pillar. Due to the large size, in particular the door length (width when open), of a typical pick-up truck, driver/passenger ingress/egress can become particularly restrictive, if not impossible, if a vehicle is parked adjacent to the truck and is sufficiently close to prevent a person from boarding or loading to enter the area between the front and rear doors (when open), invariably known as parking lot entrapment. A typical truck with front and back (rear) doors will include a B-pillar mounted rear door, which pivots relative to the B-pillar in a manner similar to the A-pillar mounted front door. This design does not suffer to the same extent from parking lot entrapment, but is still restricted as regards ingress/egress due to limitations of the door opening when parked adjacent to other vehicles.
In an effort to address such parking lot entrapment concerns, a host of sliding or articulating rear door designs, such as the design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,039 to Kohut, has been proposed. Many of the proposed articulating door systems are relatively complex in design and often susceptible to failure. More recently, a vehicle door belt and cam articulating mechanism has been proposed as disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 12/348,566 filed on Jan. 5, 2009, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
It is therefore desirable to provide for a mechanism for permitting opening and closing of a vehicle door that does not require opening of an adjacent door, and with the mechanism providing ease of operation.